


Mind Over Matter

by Settiai



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Critical Role Reverse Bang, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired by Fanart, One Shot, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-22
Updated: 2016-11-22
Packaged: 2018-09-01 14:11:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8627590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Settiai/pseuds/Settiai
Summary: Percy woke up to darkness.Written for the 2016 Critical Role Reverse Bang.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for the 2016 _Critical Role_ Reverse Bang, and it was inspired by a lovely piece of fanart drawn by [elderly-scrolls](http://elderly-scrolls.tumblr.com/).
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> At this time, the artwork can be found [at this link](http://settiai.tumblr.com/post/153533944209) over on Tumblr, if you'd like to leave any comments for the amazing artist.

Percy woke up to darkness.

Actually, perhaps "woke up" weren't quite the right words to use. There wasn't a sense of shifting from state of consciousness to another. He didn't open his eyes and find himself in a bed, or in a bedroll at a campsite, or even sprawled unceremoniously on the ground. It was more of a return to awareness, an abrupt swing from nothing to _something_.

It took a long moment for his mind to reorient itself. When it did, he had more questions than he did answers.

He was standing, which in itself caught him by surprise. It had been months since he'd lost time to anything other than sleep or unconsciousness, or perhaps – on the rare occasion and usually thanks to Keyleth's influence – drunkenness. He'd almost convinced himself that he would never again have to suffer from the experience. All things considered, he should have known better.

Which led to a rather important question: what the _fuck_ had happened during the time he had apparently lost?

"Hello?" Percy asked, purposefully keeping his voice low as he peered out into the inky black that surrounded him. He didn't know what was out there, after all. He wasn't like the others, with their gift at seeing in the dark. He was just a human.

The word was swallowed by the darkness.

Percy could feel his heartbeat speeding up in his chest, the edges of panic creeping up on him. "Helpless" had never been one of his favorite states of being. He forced himself to stay standing, his mind frantically racing as he dug through his memories. Where was he? Why weren't the others there? What had happened?

Think, Percival. Think.

He closed his eyes, not that it made any difference considering the darkness that surrounded him. It was easier to pretend that way, though, to ignore the present and focus on the past.

There had been a fight, that much he remembered. Vox Machina had walked headfirst into a trap that they should have seen coming from a mile away, if they'd actually stopped for a moment or two to think before acting for once in their lives. None of them had recognized the creature that had ambushed them, but there had been something familiar about it nonetheless.

It had some type of psychic abilities. Every time one of their attacks had hit home, it had felt almost as if they were feeling some of the damage themselves. Then, damn it, what had happened?

Percy frowned. His mind was sluggish for some reason. It felt almost as if he'd been clocked on the head, but without the pain that usually followed that happening. He could feel the memories there, just out of reach, but it was almost as if something was trying to hold them back from them. He was having to push much harder than he was used to doing in order to reach them.

That... probably wasn't a good sign.

Still, the memories were there. A bit harder to reach, perhaps, but present. That was something, at least.

The creature had turned its attention on Keyleth. She'd been kneeling, trying to recover from a fiery blast she'd let out moments earlier, and Percy hadn't hesitated. He had thrown himself between her and the danger she hadn't even noticed, gun in hand. He'd fired straight at its head, and he'd known the moment he pulled the trigger that it was going to be one of those rare perfect shots. Their enemy had shrieked as the bullet found its mark, a loud piercing cry that had gone straight through him.

There had been a blinding pain in his head as the creature had fallen, achingly familiar yet completely alien at the same time, and then... and then...

... and then nothing. The world had gone dark. That was the last thing he remembered.

It was disconcerting, to say the least.

Percy opened his eyes again, flinching a little at the utter darkness that met his gaze. What had happened? Where was he? And where were the others?

He took in a deep breath, holding it for a long moment before slowly releasing it. Then he turned in a circle, squinting into the darkness in the hope that he'd see _something_. Just a tiny flicker of light would be enough.

The only thing he saw was more darkness.

Percy took in another breath, this one a little shakier than the previous one. It didn't matter. He still had several options. None of them were particularly pleasant, but they were options. That's what mattered. There was no reason to panic, not yet at least. Not until he knew more details about what had happened.

For the first time in ages, he regretted the fact that he didn't keep some type of light source on him at all times. He had, once upon a time, before he had met the others. He'd kept something on him even after he had started traveling with them, for at least the first several months. Percy wasn't entirely certain when he had stopped, when he'd started assuming that one of the others would always be there using magic to light the way or leading him by the hand through the darkness when they needed to remain unseen.

"Percy?"

His breath caught in his throat at the sound of a very familiar voice coming from somewhere behind him. He spun around, squinting into the darkness in the hope that maybe he would see something this time. "Pike?" he called out, louder than his tentative query earlier. "Pike, are you there?"

There wasn't a reply.

Maybe it had been his imagination, his mind playing tricks on him. Or maybe she was out there somewhere in the darkness, hidden from his view. There were many reasons she might not want to speak again, if she was making her way towards him. He had no idea what was hiding just out of his sight, after all. The rest of Vox Machina. More enemies. Hells, the way his life had been going, he wouldn't have blinked to suddenly find out that a dragon was lurking just a few feet away.

There was no way to know, not with it being so damn dark.

A sudden thought, one that he'd purposely been trying to hold back for the past few minutes, pressed its way to the forefront of his mind. His breath caught, despite his best intentions.

How did he know that it was a lack of light that was keeping him from seeing? What if it was his eyes that were the problem and not his surroundings? Percy's mind flashed back to the Feywild for just a moment, to those terrifying minutes where he'd thought his sight might be lost forever, and he could practically feel his lungs start to constrict at the thought.

Instinctively, more out of habit than anything else, he reached back to grab Bad News. The gun was long enough that he could at least use it to feel the ground around him, to make certain nothing was getting ready to pounce. It had worked in the Feywild, and it would work here.

He froze when his hands found nothing but air.

"Fuck," he whispered, the word barely more than a breath of air.

His gun wasn't there. His gun _wasn't there_.

With another muttered curse, Percy jerked his hand down to reach for where Retort and Animus normally hung at his side. Nothing. And now that he was paying attention to it, he couldn't feel his rapier either, nor the comforting weight of Cabal's Ruin on his shoulders.

He hadn't even noticed. How had he not noticed that he was fucking defenseless?

The panic that he'd been struggling to hold back pushed forward in force. His legs slipped out from under him, and he hit the ground hard. A distant part of his mind couldn't help but catalogue the fact that it was rough stone, like the floor of a cave or a cavern, but it was barely a passing thought just then. He could feel himself starting to hyperventilate, the familiar sensation of being an outsider in his own body almost overwhelming him.

And, despite the small voice in the back of his head insisting it was neither the time nor the place, he gave in to it.

*

"Percy, is that you?"

Pike's voice rang out from the darkness, much closer than before and this time coming from somewhere to his right. She sounded worried. Part of him wanted to turn that way, to peer into the darkness again in the hope that he'd see her even though he knew the odds were slim. He couldn't quite force his body to cooperate, though, not just then.

Distantly, like he was watching from somewhere far away, he was aware of light flooding the area around him. He squinted against the brightness, his eyes watering even as his lungs ached from lack of air.

He could see. He could _see_. Relief flooded through him, almost as overwhelming as the terror had been. Just in a different way.

"Oh, Percy."

This time, the words came from just beside him.

"Breathe with me." A hand wrapped around his arm, a gentle touch that he could barely feel that nonetheless burned like fire through the heavy cloth of his coat. The grip tightened after a moment, and his hand was brought up to rest against something firm and solid. Her chest. She was holding his hand against his chest. "Percy, breathe with me."

It took a moment or two for realization to penetrate the murky terror he was feeling, wrapping around every thought and refusing to let go. Once it did break through, it took even more time for his muddled brain to respond. Still, eventually, he managed to do what she was asking of him.

In and out. In and out. In and out.

He wasn't entirely certain how long the two of them sat there, her breathing slowly and carefully while he forced himself to match each breath. Eventually, though, he could think again. He still felt odd, like he didn't quite fit in his own body, but it was better. That was what mattered.

Percy blinked a few times, turning his attention toward her face and trying to focus on it.

Pike smiled at him, light pouring from the holy symbol she wore around her neck. Compared to the darkness that surrounded them, she burned like the sun.

"Pike?" he asked slowly. His voice was shakier than he liked it to be, and he cleared his throat to try and hide it.

He sat up a little straighter, forcing his breathing to slow down even more despite the difficulty in doing so. It wasn't as if Pike had never seen him in similar straits before, but still. He liked to pretend that the others didn't know just how much of a failure he could be. It was easier to face them that way.

Pike bit her lip nervously, her gaze moving over him and almost pinning him in place. "Are you alright?" she asked, the worry on her face clear as day.

Percy gave her a smile that he doubted actually reached his eyes. "Of course I am," he said, speaking slowly to hide the shaking that he suspected could still be heard in his voice. 

The look she shot him left no question that she didn't believe him for even a moment.

"I'll be fine," he said. It was still a non-answer, but it was at least somewhat more honest.

Pike didn't look any more convinced than she had a moment earlier, but she didn't argue with him. She just shot him one more worried look before nodding in acknowledgement.

He was abruptly aware that she was still holding his hand to her breast.

Percy could feel his face heating a bit as he pulled his hand away, not quite meeting her gaze. "Thank you," he said quietly.

There was a moment's pause.

"That's what friends are for," she replied, and he could practically hear the smile in her voice even without looking at her face.

The corners of his mouth turned up a little before he even realized what was happening. It wasn't a smile, not really, but it was close.

Percy sat there in silence for a moment, breathing in and out as steadily as he could manage. Then, with some reluctance, he turned his gaze back towards Pike. "What happened?"

An expression that he couldn't quite read flashed across her face, there and gone almost before he even had time to register it. "What do you remember?" she asked carefully.

A flicker of uncertainty, with a fair bit of suspicion on the side, ran through him.

"Walking into an ambush," Percy said slowly, not moving his eyes from her face. "Shooting the whatever-it-was right in the face."

There was another pause.

"And then what?" she prompted, when it became clear that he wasn't going to say anything.

Percy shrugged. "And then I woke up here." He grimaced, glancing around at the darkness that surrounded them. The light from Pike's holy symbol made it look almost like smoke, even though he was certain it was just his imagination. Fairly certain. Ish. "Wherever here is."

Pike frowned, a thoughtful look making its way onto her face. Then she abruptly shook her head and pushed herself to her feet. "Come on," she said, reaching down and offering him her hand. "I think it would be better if we kept moving."

"Where are we?" Percy asked, accepting her hand and letting her pull him to his feet. He flexed his fingers as she let go, no longer even remotely surprised that someone so small could have such a strong grip. He'd seen her do enough miraculous things that he didn't even blink at it, not any longer.

Pike hesitated. There wasn't any other word for it.

Percy blinked in surprise. She was the last person he would expect to keep secrets, for that very reason. Her face was so often an open book that there wasn't much point in it.

His face must have given his thoughts away, because she gave him a rueful smile.

"It's a long story," Pike said gently. "I can't tell you, not yet. I need to wait and see if you remember on your own."

He raised his eyebrows in reply.

"I promise that I'll fill you in if you don't remember soon," Pike said, meeting his gaze straight on. "But everything I've heard about..." She hesitated again, for just a second, as if she was struggling to find the appropriate words to use. "... this specific situation, makes me think that we need to wait and see what happens. Just for a little while."

Percy wasn't a fool. He could tell that Pike was hiding something fairly important from him, that there was more than one thing she wasn't saying. Still, he trusted her. If he'd suspected one of the others was keeping something from him, he would have pushed. But not Pike. She wouldn't keep something important to herself unless she truly believed that it would be safer that he not know.

If it was Pike, that was. He'd seen a lot of things over the last few years. There were definitely ways of changing someone's appearance, of making them look like someone or something else. They'd fought plenty of creatures with that ability, after all, not to mention Scanlan could do something similar himself.

He didn't feel anything that seemed _off_ about her, though. Every one of his senses was screaming that it was really Pike standing in front of him. And, while he wasn't always the best judge of such things, he typically wasn't horrible at it either.

"You're the cleric," he said slowly. "I suppose you know best."

The smile that Pike gave him was almost as blinding as the light still flooding from her holy symbol.

"Come on," she said, gesturing for him to follow her. "Let's go home."

*

Neither of them said much as they walked, Pike leading the way with Percy trailing just behind her.

It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, like it would have been with some of the others. As deeply as he cared for them all, Percy would be the first to admit that most of Vox Machina didn't exactly do "quiet" all that well. Pike, on the other hand, excelled at it.

When it came to talking at least, he mentally amended, as her armor hit something that he couldn't see and clanged rather loudly. Still, she was better than she used to be, even on that front.

As they walked, Percy tried his best to force his aching head to cooperate with him. It hadn't been hurting at first, but the more he tried to remember what had happened the worse it got. He was tempted to let Pike know, to let her heal him, but he kept hesitating. He wasn't entirely certain why, if he was honest with himself, although he suspected it was because he somewhat stubbornly wanted to figure out _what had happened_ without any help. Even of the healing magic type.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he barely noticed that Pike had stopped walking in time to keep from crashing into her back.

"What's wrong?" he asked quietly, squinting out into the murky darkness that surrounded them. He couldn't see anything outside of the ring of light that Pike was creating, not clearly at least, but for a second he almost thought the shadows seemed to be moving.

Almost like smoke.

Percy narrowed his eyes. "Pike?" he asked, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. "What's going on?"

"Something's out there," she said, her gaze focused somewhere in the distance. "I can't tell what it is, but something's definitely out there."

"Do you have any idea what it is?" he asked, turning his own gaze in the same direction she was staring in even though he knew it was fruitless.

Pike glanced over her shoulder at him, that same unreadable look from earlier flashing across her face. Then she shook her head. "It could be anything."

Percy narrowed his eyes at her. "You know something," he said slowly. It wasn't quite an accusation, not just then, but it was borderline and he knew it.

So did she, judging by the way she flinched.

"Yes," she agreed reluctantly. She reached up to wrap her hand around her holy symbol, the light coming from it dimming a little as she cupped it in her hand. "I suppose that it wouldn't hurt if I told you that—"

Without warning, something hit Percy hard in the side. He grunted in pain as he was knocked to the floor, gasping a little as the wind was knocked out of his lungs. There was a sharp pain in his side that he was fairly certain was either bruised or cracked ribs.

"Percy!"

Time seemed to go hazy for a moment or so. The next thing he knew, Pike was standing protectively in front of him, holding her holy symbol away from her chest by the chain. Light was pouring from it, lighting up the darkness and chasing the shadows away.

At the edges of the light, a smoky silhouette was just barely visible.

Percy's breath caught. It wasn't a gasp, not quite, but it was pretty damn close.

"You'll have to go through me first," Pike said, shifting her stance into a defensive one. "If you want to get to him, good luck."

For the first time, Percy noticed that she didn't have any weapons on her.

Something played at the back of his mind, a tiny thought that was threatening to grow into something larger. He was missing something here. He knew that he was. But what was it?

"Pike," he said quietly. "What's going on?"

Pike glanced over her shoulder at him, just long enough to shoot him a quicksilver smile. "Don't worry," she said. "Just focus on remembering what happened, okay?"

She only turned away from the shadow for a moment. That's all that it took.

The shadow moved in a blur. One second it was where it had been, at the edge of the circle of light that Pike was creating. The next thing Percy knew, it was right behind her. The figure was humanoid, and there was something vaguely familiar about it that he couldn't quite place. He had other things to worry about just then, though.

"Pike!"

Her eyes went wide with realization, and she spun around. Then there was a heavy clanging sound, like metal against metal, and she went flying.

Pike hit the ground several feet away, and she didn't move. Her body stayed crumpled where she had fallen.

"No!"

The words were out of his mouth before Percy even realized he was saying anything.

He pushed himself awkwardly to his feet, ignoring his aching head and the pain in his side as best he could. It was harder to keep his attention focused on the shadow. Part of him was screaming to run towards Pike, to make certain that she was going to be okay, even as his more rational side pointed out that he needed to deal with... whatever the hells was in front of him first.

Light was still pouring from her holy symbol. It wouldn't still be working if she wasn't just unconscious. Would it? Gods, he hoped not.

"What do you want?" Percy asked, his gaze focused on the shadowy figure in front of him.

The shadow _laughed_.

There was something familiar about the sound, and Percy knew that he'd heard it before. He just couldn't quite place where he knew it from.

Slowly, as carefully as he could, Percy started moving in Pike's direction. He was careful to keep his attention focused on the shadowy form in front of him, his back towards Pike.

If she could put herself between him and danger, he could do the same. It was the absolute least she deserved.

There was another achingly familiar laugh from the shadowy figure.

"What exactly is so funny?" Percy snapped, trying to hide his terror behind bluster.

If anything, the laughter grew even louder.

It was habit, more than anything, that had Percy holding his hand out. He didn't know if the tiny scrap of magic that he had would work against whatever the hells the creature was, but it was worth a shot. He was helpless, otherwise, with no weapons on him.

As soon as he brought his hand up, smoke started wrapping around it.

The shadowy figure stopped laughing abruptly and, to Percy's confusion, took a step back. Then another. And another.

The smoky silhouette of a gun appeared in Percy's hand, as if by magic. The shape was different from any of his current weapons but still clearly recognizable. It was difficult to forget the first gun you ever created, after all.

The question was, how could the List possibly be there?

Percy stared at the weapon in his hand with wide eyes, forgetting for a second not to take his eyes off of the enemy. Then his gaze snapped back upwards, flickering in the direction that the shadowy being had last been standing.

It was gone.

Biting back a curse, he dropped his gaze back toward his hand. Then he blinked in surprise.

Percy stared at his hand, as empty as it had been just a few minutes earlier. The gun, whatever it had been and wherever it had come from, was gone.

"What in the hells?" he muttered, the words barely audible even to him.

Behind him, there was a moan.

Eyes wide, he spun around. Pike was still sprawled on the ground where he'd last seen her, a pained furrow between her eyebrows.

He was kneeling at her side almost before he realized he had moved.

*

Pike had never seemed as small as she did just then, quiet and still in his arms. There was a bruise forming on the side of her face, a dark spot that seemed to be growing larger every time he glanced at it. She'd made a few sounds, mostly pained ones, but she hadn't woken up yet.

"You're going to be fine," Percy said, swallowing hard as he wrapped his arms a bit more protectively around her.

Percy wasn't entirely certain where he was going or if he was even remotely heading in the right direction. Still, anything was better than sitting there in the same spot they had been attacked. That's what he was telling himself, at least.

His head ached in time with his heartbeat, a steady throbbing pain that seemed to be increasing with every passing minute. His memories were still being stubborn, refusing to cooperate and fill in the gaps in his mind. He knew that he was close, though. He was almost certain of it.

How could this possibly be happening? Everything that had happened since he had woken up had an otherworldly feel to it, an almost dreamlike quality that didn't make any sense. It felt more like a nightmare, one of the many night terrors that kept him awake late into the night, than anything that belonged in the waking world.

He chuckled, a cold laugh that didn't hold any humor in it. Then he froze, recognition flooding through him. Oh gods, he'd recognized that laugh from earlier. He'd known that he had.

A nightmare. _A nightmare_.

Percy's eyes went wide.

The creature they had been fighting earlier. His final memory before waking up here, surrounded by darkness and shadows and smoke. It had some type of psychic ability. Every time they had managed to lay a hit on the enemy, it had felt as if they were being hit right back. The damage hadn't been physical, of course, but they'd felt it nonetheless.

And he had shot the damn thing right in the face.

A flash or two of memories burst forward, from those last moments between him pulling the trigger of his gun and the world going blank. Vax standing behind the creature as it fell, his eyes going wide. Pike yelling something that he hadn't been able to make out. Keyleth screaming his name.

The sensation of falling.

Just like that, Percy understood. There was a hitch in his breath as realization hit him like a physical blow, a dozen tiny details that hadn't made any sense coming together to form a clear picture in his mind.

"This isn't real," he whispered, his gaze darting around the dark, smoke-filled corridor that surrounded them. "None of this is real."

He looked down. Pike was a comforting weight in his arms, her breathing slow and steady, and a flicker of doubt rushed through him. She was real, he thought. He didn't know how it was possible, but he knew that much. Pike wasn't just a figment of his imagination that had been brought to life. _She_ was real. 

But nothing else was. Of that, he was certain.

Well, almost certain. It was close enough, though, all things considered. He finally knew what he needed to do.

He needed to wake up.

Percy leaned to press a kiss against Pike's forehead that wasn't quite as chaste as he'd meant for it to be, his utter relief at finally understanding what was happening making him a bit more reckless than he normally was. He supposed it didn't matter, all things considered. She wasn't awake to read anything from it that he might otherwise wish to keep hidden.

It was better that way. She didn't deserve to get pulled down by someone like him. None of them did, his ridiculous family of misfits that had somehow entangled themselves in his heart without him quite realizing it, not until it was too late to stop it from happening. But especially not _her_. She was the best of them, in every way possible.

There was a laugh nearby, a cold chuckle that mirrored his own from a moment or two earlier.

Percy's head snapped in the direction of the sound.

The shadowy figure from earlier was standing there, its head tilted to the side. It was almost as it was watching him, waiting to see what he would do next.

Now that he knew what he was looking at, Percy recognized the silhouette standing in front of him. The shadowy form was achingly familiar, despite being one he rarely saw for himself. Not unless he was looking in a mirror.

It was _him_.

Percy's eyes flickered down towards Pike, still unconscious in his arms. It was barely more than a blink, there and back again in an instant. He was careful not to turn his attention away from the shadow version of him, not entirely, considering what had happened to Pike when she had turned her back to it earlier.

Slowly, as carefully as he could without breaking his gaze, he knelt down and placed Pike on the ground. Then he stood up, stepping forward so that he was firmly between her and the... whatever the hells it was that was wearing his form. A figment of own mind? A psychic sliver of the creature they had been fighting earlier? Some remnant of Orthax that had dug its way into him and hadn't managed to be pulled loose yet? There were several options to choose from, not that it mattered all that much in the end.

"I must admit," Percy said dryly, his gaze focused on the shadowy form moving in front of him, "this might be the most disconcerting thing I've ever done. And that's saying quite a lot." 

He held out his empty hand, pale and almost shining white in the light still pouring from Pike's still form. This time, when the smoky gun appeared in his hand, it was entirely intentional.

It still looked like the List.

There was no sound when he pulled the trigger, no wall of noise or burst of flame. It was eerily silent, and for a moment Percy thought that he'd misjudged something.

And then the shadowy silhouette standing across from him, his doppelganger made entirely of smoke, disappeared with a haunting, terrifyingly familiar scream of pain.

He gasped, his suddenly empty hands coming up to clutch at the sides of his head. It felt like it was about to split in two.

"Percy?" Pike's voice was shaky, and it sounded like it was coming from a great distance rather than just behind him. "Percy, can you hear me?"

He dropped to his knees, that scream still echoing in his head.

"Percy?"

Breathing deeply through the pain, trying his best to focus, Percy closed his eyes.

*

Percy's eyes jerked opened.

His friends – his _family_ – were crowded around him, worried looks on every single one of their faces.

He blinked a few times, trying to clear his vision, before he realized that the very slight fuzziness he was noticing was stemming from a lack of glasses rather than anything potentially more serious. His head was still pounding, a steady throbbing pain worse than any hangover he had ever suffered, but it didn't matter. Not just then.

Percy drew in a shaky breath. His lungs ached as well, as if he hadn't been getting enough air. They burned a little as he breathed in and out. In and out. In and out.

He could almost hear Pike's words from earlier, telling him to breathe with her.

"What happened?" he asked. Or, more precisely, that's what he tried to ask. It came out as more of an incoherent whine than anything else, one that set off a coughing fit that sent a sharp, stabbing pain through his already aching head.

He was vaguely aware of someone squeezing his hand, clinging to it so tightly that it was almost painful. It was too much effort to look in that direction just then, though, so he ignored it for the time being. There would be time for that once he managed to get his voice back. Instead, he just focused on breathing for a second or two.

Percy cleared his throat, frowning a little at the dry scratchiness in it. Then he tried again. "What happened?"

The words at least came out that time. They were weak and slightly slurred, but they were audible. Or, at least, they sounded audible to him. Whether or not the others understood him was another question altogether.

He got his answer to whether or not they'd been able to understand him a second or two later.

Keyleth let out a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a sob. Then she all but threw herself at his chest, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. Vex followed suit a moment later, one of her arms going around Keyleth so that she was technically hugging both of them.

Percy froze in surprise, not quite certain how to react. He tentatively hugged back with his left arm the best that he could onehandedly, suddenly more aware than ever that someone was still clinging tightly to his other hand. There was only one person it could be.

It took more effort that he had expected to turn his head to the side.

Pike had dark circles under her eyes and an exhausted look on her face, but when she smiled at him there wasn't a trace of insincerity to it. She opened her mouth, as if she was going to say something, but then she abruptly closed it as if she had changed her mind at the last minute.

It didn't matter. Everything she could possibly have said was already clearly visible in her eyes.

Percy smiled at her. Or, at least, he tried. He suspected it probably came across as more of a pained grimace, but he hoped that his meaning came across.

Pike squeezed his hand. After a moment's hesitation, he squeezed back.

With more than a little reluctance, he tore his gaze away from her.

"Will someone _please_ tell me what happened?" Percy asked again, his voice a little stronger this time. It still sounded a bit rough to him, weaker than he liked, but it was better than before at least.

Someone tentatively carded their fingers through his hair, just for a moment. Percy's eyes shifted, and he caught just a hint of movement as Vax yanked his hand back. Vax didn't quite meet his gaze, clearly aware that he'd been caught but presumably subscribing to the notion that if he didn't acknowledge it then maybe it would go away.

Some things would never change, he supposed.

"You got caught in some kind of psychic blast when you took out that thing we were fighting," Vax said, his eyes still pointedly focused somewhere in the distance. "You shoved Kiki out of the way, blew its brains out, and then you hit the ground."

"And you wouldn't wake up," Keyleth mumbled against his shirt, her words a bit muffled.

That... explained quite a bit, actually.

Pike squeezed his hand again.

Vax shifted uncomfortably. "You're just lucky that Pike knew what to do to fix it."

"We're all lucky that she knew what to do," Vex said, hugging him a little tighter.

Percy tore his gaze away from Vax – not to mention Grog and Scanlan, who were both standing behind him with much too serious looks on their faces, and Percy didn't want to think about how bad it must have been to make the two of _them_ be wearing expressions like that – and back toward Pike.

"Thank you," he said softly.

She gave him a weak smile. "You would have done the same for me."

Percy didn't argue with her, although a part of him couldn't help but wonder if she was right or not. He'd like to think that she was, but he wasn't entirely certain. It wouldn't be the first time that she saw him in a better light than he deserved to be seen.

Pike must have seen something in his eyes or read something in his expression, because her face grew more serious after a moment or two.

"You would have done the same for me," she repeated, and there wasn't a hint of doubt in her voice.

He squeezed her hand.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me over on Tumblr. (http://settiai.tumblr.com/)


End file.
